That’s simple; because I’m the one who is tuned into the importance of preparing myself prior to any activity so that I can best perform this function. The start point of increasing your productivity and getting the most done, in the shortest period of time, is your prep time. To try to do this once you have started your activity, you are already too late.

One of my clients asked me to do a feasibility study of his warehouse functions. He was in the food warehousing industry and he was aware that he was processing far less product on a daily basis than his competitors. I agreed and went to his location. I arrived 30 minutes prior to the start of his first shift. After standing there, for about 2 minutes, I told him I had the answer to his problem. We went into his office and sat down. He said how I could have the answer to his problem after only being there for 2 minutes and not seeing any of his people in action. I said that was the problem.

I told him that it was impossible for a shift of 40 people to achieve anything close to peak production if no one was there, prior to the shift to set up the day properly. To do the planning, the advance thinking, to asses what was done the day before, to anticipate what could go wrong and take corrective actions, PRIOR to the shift beginning. I said these are all the factors that go into ensuring peak production. Getting the most out of his team was a thinking process not a physical process. I said to him, let’s go outside and watch how the shift unfolds.

Starting time was 8:00; people started to drift in around 7:45, punched in, and had coffee, mingled around, typical start of the day for a facility like this one. The buzzer went off at 8:00. A shift that had 47 people scheduled to work that day, only 34 were present and presumably ready to start working, a full 25 % of his work force was late, not a good start. It got worse, a great deal worse.

People were standing in groups, around machines and workstations, just mingling, not working. Supervisors were going to each group and instructing them on the day’s activities. This is the classic production killer; groups of people not able to work because they are dependant on one person to give them the tools they need to work. If you are at all serious about getting your performance in line with maximum production, you must be aware of this trap and avoid it all costs.

Once this step had been accomplished, which took about 45 minutes, the next disaster took place. One group of workers relied on another group to provide them with the results of that group’s activities, in other words, timing of the work was important. It took close to an hour for the flow of the work to catch up with each group. At this point I turned to my client and said had he seen enough. We went back to his office.

He sat there for a few minutes and said nothing, and then he finally said, what do I do? I said what I have said to literally thousand of people over the years; someone has to care. He said he cared a lot about his business, about losing money and about not achieving the kind of results his competitors did. I then said, it was a two-part solution; someone had to care about how things got done, and had to care before they started to get things done. I told him the start of his shift was a disaster. There was no direction, no leadership, no systems, policies, procedures in place, and certainly no one had given any thought as to the best, most efficient way of doing anything. In other words, the headset, the mindset was totally missing.

It was a long process to turn this business around. The process started, not on the production floor, but around a desk with a pad and a pencil. The thinking process had to start if there was to be any chance of things improving on the production floor. The first and most important step in getting things done efficiently is to look at everything you do with one eye, one ear tuned in to the concept and idea that there will be a right and a wrong way to do this task. I want to be sure that I’m doing it the right way. From the start, if you are on the alert for ways to be more efficient, quicker and more aware of the functionality of what you are doing, you are now putting yourself into the right mind-set to be productive and accomplish more.

I tell my employees and those around me that this why we always have to do it MY WAY!

Bryan Beckstead is the creator and developer of the Power Time System and the Power Productivity Maximizer and has been involved in the Self Improvement and Self Empowerment industries for almost 35 years. His aggressive, in-your-face approach has earned him a reputation as someone who will give you the facts without the usual sugar coating. If you are really serious about improving your quality of life, visit him at http://www.powertimesystem.com.

“How we use our time determines our destiny”
Bryan Beckstead

Our Goal at the Power Time System is to work with you to achieve a clearer understanding of the role time and how our use of it plays in reaching your goals in life.

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